THE 



AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



[THIRD SERIES. 1 



Art. XL — On the Relations between the Surface Tensions 

 of Liquids and their Chemical Constitution; by C. E. 



ElNEBAKGER. 



The mathematical and physical parts of the subject of the 

 surface tension of liquids have received much attention, and 

 may be considered as having reached a high stage of develop- 

 ment. The basis of the theory was laid by Young,* who 

 regarded a liquid as bounded by a superficial film, behaving like 

 a stretched membrane, and who showed that the form of the 

 surface could be accounted for by taking into consideration the 

 conflict between the surface tension and the other forces act- 

 ing upon the liquid. This theory was elaborately worked out 

 by Laplace,f Poisson,^; Gauss,§ Hagenf and many others. 

 Numerous investigators have occupied themselves with the 

 experimental verification of the theory and treatment and 

 development of certain physical and mathematical questions 

 pertaining to it.^[ The bibliography relative to the phenomena 

 of capillarity is very extensive ; indeed, but few branches of 

 physics have received more attention. 



The chemical side of the question, on the other hand, has 



* An Essay on the Cohesion of Fluids, Phil. Transactions for 1 805 ; and Young's 

 Collected Works by Peacock,, vol. i, p. 418. 



f Sur Taction capillaire, Supplement au X livre du Traite de Mecanique Celeste. 

 (1845), Paris. 



^Xouvelle theorie del'action capillaire (1831), Paris. 



§ Principia generalia theoriae flgurae fluidorum in statu aequilibrii, Gottingen. 



I Ueber die Oberflache der Fliissigkeiten, Berlin Acad. (1845). 



"|[ For a historical sketch of the subject, see Quincke, Pogg. Ann., cv, I, and 

 Maxwell, in Encyclopedia Britannica. 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Third Series, Vol. XLIV, No. 260.— August, 1892. 

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